DAMASCUS, Syria - Former President Carter defied U.S. and Israeli warnings and met Friday with the exiled leader of Hamas and his deputy, two men the U.S. government has labeled terrorists and Israel accuses of masterminding attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The son of the Dutch defense chief was killed Friday by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, and the Taliban claimed they deliberately made the young lieutenant a high-profile target.

NEW YORK - The tragic sinking of the Titanic nearly a century ago can be blamed on low grade rivets that the ship's builders used on some parts of the ill-fated liner, two experts on metals conclude in a new book.

BAGHDAD - Followers of anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr denounced the American military's construction of a concrete wall through their Sadr City stronghold in Baghdad, the scene of renewed clashes Friday between his militiamen and U.S. and Iraqi troops.

HARARE, Zimbabwe - Police arrested 36 people and accused them of attempting to violently enforce a nationwide strike called by Zimbabwe's opposition to press for the release of presidential election results, authorities said Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Runners carried the Olympic flame around the outside of a sports stadium Wednesday - an invitation-only event in front of an elite, sparse crowd with heavy security to deter any anti-China protesters or terrorist attacks.

GOMA, Congo - A Congolese jetliner with about 85 people on board failed to take off Tuesday from an airport in this eastern town, slamming into a busy market neighborhood at the end of the runway and bursting into flames, officials said.

LODZ, Poland - Marek Edelman, the last surviving commander of the 1943 uprising in the Warsaw ghetto by a handful of scrappy, poorly armed Jews against the Nazi army, becomes emotional when he speaks of the fighters he led.

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE - Traveling on his first papal journey to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI confronted the clergy sex abuse scandal, saying Tuesday that he was ''deeply ashamed'' of the problem and vowing to keep pedophiles out of the priesthood.

JERUSALEM - Former President Carter angered Israel's government Tuesday by embracing a Hamas politician during a visit to the West Bank, ignoring Israeli and U.S. designation of the Islamic militants as a terror group.